Methods, which have been adopted for regulating the balance between power supply and demand in an electric power system, include a method for controlling the output of thermal power generation and a method of appropriately operating pumping-up hydraulic power generation while controlling the output of thermal power generation.
As renewable power sources such as photovoltaic or wind power generation, in which the amount of generated power depends on weather, are incorporated as distributed power sources in electric power systems in the future, concern arises that these distributed power sources may adversely affect the balance between power supply and demand.
A method of regulating power supply and demand that uses thermal power generation and pumping-up hydraulic power generation may by itself be inadequate to compensate for imbalance in power supply and demand that is brought about by the distributed power sources. As a result, a new method of regulating electric power supply and demand is now essential.
One method, which is thought to be a new method of regulating electric power supply and demand, employs apparatuses such as “storage cells,” “electric vehicles (EV),” and heat-pump water heaters (HP) (hereinbelow referred to as “electric power apparatuses”) that are linked to the power distribution network of an electric power system as regulating devices for regulating the balance between electric power supply and demand.
Patent Document 1 describes an electric power system control device that regulates the balance between electric power supply and demand by using consumer-side secondary batteries (ES), which are electric power apparatuses, as regulating devices for regulating the balance between electric power supply and demand.